Steps to Organizing Your Dorm Room

College life has taught me that you can be as organized as possible in your academic or social lives and still have a concerningly messy room. Oh, it starts out well, but things start to get crazy, and then you realize your drying rack still has clothes on it that you washed a week ago and you can’t quite remember the last time you reorganized that pile of books and notebooks under your bed.

It happens, and that’s ok. The key is to organize your room in such a way that it is difficult to reach critical levels of disorganization. Cue storage containers.

If you’re like me, you have a lot of shoes and not a lot of space to keep them. Most likely, you end up with shoes scattered around your room: shower shoes by the bathroom, rain boots in the closet, sneakers by your dresser, and heels somewhere under your bed. Unsurprisingly, you can never seem to find the exact pair that you’re looking for, especially when you’re already running late.

I keep thisrolling shoe storage box under my bed for most of my shoes. It rolls out easily, and it can open from either end, giving you direct access to your shoes. I typically keep my shower shoes outside of it, as well as one or two pairs that I wear most days; however, I put most of my shoes in the bin. Every so often, I rotate the shoes so that the out-of-season ones are towards the back.

For my books, I have a couple of these milk crates that keep all my notebooks and books in one place. I usually keep the books from the past semester towards the back and then stack some of the books I am currently using on top so that they’re easier to find. My roommate and I also use one of these to hold our snack supply.

Besides my makeup and hair products, I have a lot of other random, smaller items that I don’t want sitting out on my desk. My closet has a built-in shelf network, so I use this fabric cubeto hold my sunscreen, extra shampoo and conditioner, razors, and other products. It fits perfectly in one of the closet shelves, and it keeps all the items in one place rather than strewn around my room or cluttering up the bathroom.

These three different bins help segment different categories of your stuff, like books versus personal care products, and they help reduce the stress of running around your room trying to find your Econ notebook before class. If you want to know more about maximizing dorm space, check out my postHang it UP: Tips for Maximizing Your Wall Space.

So now you don’t have to feel like you’re living a double life of having an organized life in all respects except for your room.